Background: Handgrip strength is an indicator of overall muscle strength. Poor handgrip strength is a risk factor for disability and mortality. We aimed to investigate the pattern of inheritance of handgrip strength in a sample of parent-offspring pairs from three different European regions in Denmark, France, and Italy.
Methods: In this substudy of the European Challenge for Healthy Aging study, handgrip strength was measured in 290 subjects aged 90 years and older and in one of their offspring.
Results: When all pairs were considered together, parental and offspring handgrip strength were weakly correlated (r = .16; p < .01). However, paternal-offspring correlation was significantly higher than maternal-offspring correlation (r = .26; confidence interval [CI]: 0.11-0.41 versus r = .03; CI: -0.14 to 0.19; p = .04). This difference was particularly marked for daughters (r = -.07; CI: -0.29 to 0.16 for mother-daughter correlation versus r = .31; CI: 0.11-0.49 for father-daughter; p = .01) compared with sons (r = .12; CI: -0.13 to 0.36 for mother-son correlation versus r = .25; CI: 0.00-0.46 for father-son; p = .47). Father-daughter correlation remained higher than mother-daughter when analyses were performed with 144 nondependent parents (r = .32; CI: 0.04; 0.55 versus r = -.25; CI: -0.61 to 0.21; p = .03). These results were similarly observed in the three regions of the study, where mean levels of handgrip strength strongly differed.
Conclusions: It suggests that age-related effects on functional health among women could be mediated more through the paternal line than the maternal.